MEANS OF THE EXPRESSION OF THE EMOTIONS. 283 



face being directed toward the heavens, with the eyeballs 

 upturned. Sir C. Bell remarks that, at the approach of 

 sleep, or of a fainting-fit, or of death, the pupils are 

 drawn upward and inward ; and he belieTes that "when 

 we are rapt in devotional feelings, and outward impres- 

 sions are unheeded, the eyes are raised by an action nei- 

 ther taught nor acquired " ; and that this is due to the 

 same cause as in the above cases. That the eyes are 

 upturned during sleep is, as I hear from Professor Don- 

 ders, certain. With babies, while sucking their mother's 

 breast, this movement of the eyeballs often gives to them 

 an absurd appearance of ecstatic delight ; and here it 

 may be clearly perceived that a struggle is going on 

 against the position naturally assumed during sleep. But 

 Sir C. Bell's explanation of the fact, which rests on the 

 assumption that certain muscles are more under the con- 

 trol of the will than others, is, as I hear from Professor 

 Donders, incorrect. As the eyes are often turned up in 

 prayer, without the mind being so much absorbed in 

 thought as to approach to the unconsciousness of sleep, 

 the movement is probably a conventional one — the result 

 of the common belief that Heaven, the source of Divine 

 power to which we pray, is seated above us. 



A humble kneeling posture, with the hands upturned 

 and palms joined, appears to us, from long habit, a ges- 

 ture so appropriate to devotion, that it might be thought 

 to be innate ; but I have not met with any evidence to 

 this effect with the various extra-European races of man- 

 kind. During the classical period of Roman history it 

 does not appear, as I hear from an excellent classic, that 

 the hands were thus joined during prayer. Mr. Hens- 

 leigh Wedgwood has apparently given the true explana- 

 tion, though this implies that the attitude is one of slav- 

 ish subjection. " When the suppliant kneels and holds 



